Representatives from the retail and wholesale sectors have called on the government to take positive action for businesses, including an overall of the business rates system.
The panel, which consisted of Federation of Wholesale Distributors Head of External Affairs Lyndsey Cambridge, Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) Government Relations Director Edward Woodall, British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) CEO Andrew Goodacre and Federation of Small Businesses Deputy Chair of Policy and Advocacy Ian O’Donnell, appeared at the National Convenience Show to discuss the Labour party’s performance in government so far.
Woodall said ACS members are struggling with confidence in the government following a series of business cost increases. “I think they’ve seen a pretty challenging environment from the Budget onwards. The budget cost of the convenience sector was £666m in additional costs for 2025 if you take into account the increase in the national living wage, the uplift in National Insurance contributions and the loss of business rates relief. So, in that sense, if I was a convenience retailer, I’d be quite challenged by that. I think they are concerned. I also think they see layers of regulation around environmental and product issues that they’re having to contend with.”
O’Donnell said his members are also critical of the past eight months. “When I talk to my members, they’re not finding it at all positive - all they’ve seen are costs going up and consumer confidence decline at the same time.”
Goodacre said Labour “inherited a challenging financial situation, but there has been too much change at the same time”. “It’s really hard to find a positive feeling about the first nine months of this government. Challenging - yes for them. But have they made it more difficult for themselves? I think many of our members would argue yes.”
Cambridge added that the new government have been engaging but is waiting to see if they actually take action. “We have seen quite a lot of positive engagement from Labour government so far and that’s not unusual when you have a new government in power. We saw it with the [Conservative/Liberal Democrat] coalition, and we saw it with the Tory Government and true to form, Labour are reaching out and they are certainly in listening mode but whether they take on board what myself, colleagues and my peers are telling them then that’s a different story.”
She praised the government for the Crime and Policing Bill, which was first introduced by the previous government but could not be passed in time ahead of the General Election.
“The Crime and Policing Bill they’ve picked up where the Conservatives left off, which is good news and that is now going through Parliament and we are hoping that we manage to get an amendment for wholesalers to be included, not just those wholesalers that sell in a cash and carry to retailers, but also business to business. It’s a really minor detail, but it makes a really big difference, so that would be a great victory for them. But I would say the biggest challenge at the moment for our members is the Business Rates reform that’s coming down the line and that really does pose quite a serious risk.”
Goodacre added that BIRA is having really good conversations with the government and believed that they are genuinely listening but warned that smaller businesses may bear the brunt of legislative changes.
O’Donnell said the government is in a position to make some positive changes. “There’s an opportunity here for a new government with a significant majority to make and do some of the tough stuff.
“Business rates is an ongoing issue which successive governments have failed to truly do anything about. It’s a tough challenge to deal with and it will take a bit of time to do properly. We still have a system which is based on the value of your premises, not on how much value does this deliver to the business, and we’ve got to realise that the world has changed from when this business rates system was brought in. Now is the opportunity for Labour to take some of those difficult decisions and make them happen to if they want to deliver a growth economy.”
Woodall agreed that business rates presented an opportunity for a win for the government. “There’s an opportunity for us to come back here next year and say the government has done some good things on business rates.”
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